


Cool for the Summer

by Platypodes



Series: The Cool Kids [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Fosterhome, Friendship, M/M, Other, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-08-12 21:24:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7949683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Platypodes/pseuds/Platypodes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Just something that we wanna try</i>
  <br/>
  <i>'Cause you and I</i>
  <br/>
  <i>We're cool for the summer</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This will just be a quick three-part continuation of my previous story, [Like the Cool Kids](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3499475/chapters/7690511), showing what the kids got up to during their summer vacation. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy. The official second part of the story will be coming out soon. ;^^
> 
> Warning: Lots of swearing

It's a blisteringly hot Sunday morning and you're currently upside down in Dave's Bro's car, awkwardly trying to reach one of the screws that holds the dashboard in place before finally realizing that you've once again chosen the wrong sized wrench. With her legs up on the passenger seat next to you, looking as comfortable as if she were reclining on the couch, Terezi's deft fingers brush across the head of the screw before swooping into the toolbox and picking out the correct size on her first go. You sigh and add this to the long list of things that seem like they shouldn't be this easy for her to do literally blindfolded, but somehow miraculously are.

 

You and Dave, meanwhile, are learning the advantages of being blind.

"Hold the light straight, dickwad." you growl.

"Like this?" Dave asks, pointing the flashlight at the roof of the car.

"No, you fucker, like-"

"Sollux, can you shine the light a little higher?" Terezi asks, not wanting to be left out.

"Is this better?" he says, shifting the beam from the part she was working on and moving it so the light shines directly in your eye.

"Motherfu-"

"Yeah, that’s perfect." she says as Dave and Sollux snicker.

 

After another couple fruitless minutes, you give up and attempt to extract yourself from under the dash by writhing like a nearly-dead fish until you fall by the door of the car in a tangled heap. Dave (wisely) takes a step back to avoid you.

"Why do I have to do this anyway?" you grumble, picking yourself up from the floor. "It's your brother's stupid car."

"Because you're the one who won't quit bitching about the AC not working." Sollux says, leaning over the hood, his flashlight forgotten. He's got you there. 

You sigh, rubbing a hand across your sweating brow. It's summer vacation and so far you've mostly been spending it fixing up Dave's brother's old pickup truck. You started even before school let out, but hadn’t made much progress. The powers that be had granted Dave visitation rights with his brother, which is what first prompted the endeavor. Technically, he was only supposed to see him once a week, but it’s not like anyone was paying attention to where you went all day.

"Well, I don’t think we’re going to get much further today…" Dave sighs. He had already taken his turn under the hood earlier that day and only switched with you when the heat soaked up by the metal, un-air-conditioned vehicle became too much.

 

"You think we can still drive it?" Sollux asks, dubiously. By now you’ve taken most of the dash off. And Dave said he might’ve accidentally pulled a wire from one of the panels when he didn’t mean to.

"I don’t-"

"Sure, why not? We didn’t do anything to the engine yet." Dave answers.

You glare at them both. "I don't-"

"Yeah, c'mon, don't be such a baby." Terezi laughs.

You sigh as the three of them pile into the truck. "I don't think that's a good idea.." you finally finish, muttering to yourself, since apparently you're the only one who listens to you anyway.

You drive home while holding parts of the car in place. It turns out the wire Dave pulled was the one that controls the dashboard lights, so you no longer know what gear you're in or how much gas you have. Terezi says that makes it 'more fun'. Both of them seem to think that driving is the same thing as Mario Kart.

 

Back at the house, things have been going surprisingly well in recent months. Despite their best efforts to stick everyone in foster homes you, Dave, Terezi, Gamzee, and even Nepeta are all still there. Meanwhile, Sollux is another former-and-now-recently-returned foster kid from the same house as the rest of you. While you're not happy that his last home didn't work out (but, let's be honest, when do they ever?), you are happy to see him again. You always liked Sollux. He likes to program, and you like to pretend you can program, so you (kind of?) have that in common. And it gives you something to do when Terezi and Dave are having one of their shitty music jams in a pile of her plush stuffed animals, or playing one of their table top RPG campaigns with Nepeta.

 

You sit cross-legged on the floor of the room he (technically) shares with Gamzee (only he never seems to be in there anymore), with the decade old laptop you ~~stole~~  borrowed from school on your lap. Sollux's homemade computer is set up in the corner. He said he salvaged most of the parts from dead computers people were giving away on craigslist.

Sollux is working on his project for a Summer Hackathon competition, whereas you've been trying to get the same program to compile (unsuccessfully) for the last two hours.

There's a soft knock at the door. You turn to see Dave standing awkwardly in the hallway. "It's, like, ten o'clock..." he says. It's all he needs to say.

"Alright. Cool." you say, shutting your laptop and getting up off the floor. "See ya, Sollux."

"Yeah, later nerds." Sollux says, waving over his shoulder. 

 

"So what terrifying crime against nature are we watching today?" Dave asks as you both bounce down the stairs towards the TV room.

" _Sleepless in Seattle_ , and it's not terrifying, it's a classic. Just you wait, Strider, before the summer's over, I'm going to make a fully-fledge romcom lover out of you."

"Yeah, we'll see.."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you're wondering; no, there is no plot.. xP


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll update my excuses in the next couple of days. 
> 
> So you should probably expect them some time next year.. 
> 
> v_v
> 
> I'm sorry..

"Why am I even holding this for you?" Sollux complains at the start of another way-too-hot Sunday afternoon.  
"Whoever's not working holds the flashlight. That's the deal."  
"But you're blind!"  
"I don't see how that's relevant." Terezi sniffs, as though mildly offended.  
"I agree with Terezi." Equius chimes in, despite no one asking him. "Matters of class and common decency go beyond physical impairments. Not that I'd expect someone of your upbringing to understand that."

Instead of making a reply, Sollux looks to you with an expression that begs you to let him punch him in the nose. Another day and you might have. For now you just fix him with a cautioning frown and shake your head. You need him. 

You invited Equius over (or, more accurately, got Nepeta to invite him) when the YouTube tutorials you'd been watching to try and figure out how to fix the Jeep started using words like 'expansion valve' and 'vacuum pump' and you realized maybe this wasn't something you should be messing around with. Because despite being a total asshat, like, 90% of the time, he's actually pretty good with this stuff. He also brought his own tools. 

Sighing, you try to get back to what you were doing on the other side of the engine. Nepeta is sitting cross-legged on the roof of the car, holding your flashlight. It’s something like 92 out today and you wonder how she can stand the heat, but it doesn’t seem to bother her. She was sleeping up there earlier, with nothing but the thin material of her cotton hoodie between her bare skin and the burning metal. Now she’s sitting up, giving unhelpful and largely incomprehensible instructions to you from her vehicular throne. 

A minute later, Equius leans back from the engine, running the back of his wrist across his sweaty forehead, and everyone stops to listen to him. "That's about all we can do right now." he says. "You're missing nearly all the tools you need to do this right. Not to mention the fact that the refrigerant is an environmental hazard and really ought to be changed by a licensed professional."  
"I thought that’s what you’re for?" Dave groans. Sollux murmurs something in agreement that was probably an insult and makes Nepeta glare at him. Clearly this truck is not getting fixed tonight. And you’re pretty sure he was hoping you wouldn’t have to invite Equius back a second time. 

With her fingers hooked on the inside of the engine, Terezi leans her weight into the front of the car with a lengthy shrug and an equally lengthy sigh. "Well- Later!" she says, finally. You turn to look at her, surprised. Doubly so when you see that Dave is giving her the same confused expression. "I'm meeting someone." She explains, without really explaining. 

Dave closes his hanging jaw and just nods stoically. You go on gaping. 

"Is Terezi seeing someone?" you ask, after she's half way down the road towards the bus stop, and out of (even her freakishly long) earshot. Dave mutters something unintelligible as he starts picking up the tools from around the car, but whatever he said, he doesn’t seem happy about it. "Not fucking fair, Strider. You have to tell me if she is."  
"Uh... no I don't."  
“Whose side are you on?” you grumble.  
"I'm on Terezi's side. Duh. It's her life, if she has something to tell you, she'll tell you."

Down off the roof of the truck, Nepeta folds her hands behind her back, just looking confused and curious.  
Equius is standing next to her, holding his (foster parents’) car keys. 

"There’s an Autozone a few miles from here that should have everything we need."  
"Cool. Have fun." Dave says quickly, making a break for the house.  
"Wait! Who's going to pay for the tools?"  
"Uh… you are?" Dave optimistically asks. Equius just folds his beefy arms and frowns. For all his pontificating on 'class', he's a foster kid just like the rest of you. Aka: broke. "I'll go see if my Bro has any cash…" Dave grumbles when grinning in silence at him doesn't seem to work. 

The two of them leave to get the stuff while Sollux and Nepeta continue trying to reattach the dash (which Equius unhelpfully informed you did not need to come off in its entirety, before pointing you to a small panel that would have done the job instead). You fall backwards into a deck chair, looking up how to change refrigerant on YouTube, since it sounds like that’s going to be the next step. (Because like hell you can afford to take it to a mechanic). The summer heat has evaporated most of your patience and good humor regarding this car. A certain blonde asshole isn't helping. Now you just want it to be over with. 

You look up at the car. Sollux and Nepeta are nowhere to be seen. They must’ve gone back inside at some point to escape the mosquitoes. You look back at the tablet in your hand, wandering over to the open hood. 

This doesn't look that hard…

You get about thirty seconds into the YouTube tutorial before bright green liquid is spraying out of the car like a fucking water feature. It takes another five before you, the floor, the engine block, and most of the ceiling are all completely coated. And then, because apparently god wanted to prove to you that things really can get worse, Dave, Sollux, and Nepeta take that second to walk back through the front of the garage. 

Sollux immediately starts laughing. Nepeta screams. "Oh my god! Karkat! Is that acid?" she gasps, covering her mouth.  
You frown, bright green coolant still dripping from your hair. "Yeah, Nepeta. It's acid. I'm literally dying right now." you say. As opposed to figuratively dying, which is what Sollux appears to be doing  
Dave hands you a towel.  
"Dude. You totally killed the earth." he says.   
"I did not kill the Earth!"  
"You did. You killed it. It's dead now, man. There's gonna be a funeral and everything. Al Gore will read the eulegy. The Rolling Stones are-"  
"Oh, shove it." You grumble, wiping the sweet tasting liquid off your face. Wait a second… "Isn't this stuff poison?" you ask, suddenly horrified.  
"Probably." Dave shrugs, walking through the garage to the back door, unconcerned. "Nice knowing you Kit-Kat." he says, laughing. 

You try to follow, but he stops you at the door. “Uhh.. Hell no you’re not tracking that gross stuff into my Bro’s house. There’s a hose out back. I’ll show you where it is, just let me put this stuff away.” 

Grumbling, you head out around the back of the house. You find the hose yourself and are part way through washing this green shit out of your hair when you hear someone behind you.  
“Do you know how hard it is to get you alone?”  
You turn, already frowning. Before you can ask why the hell anyone would want to ‘get you alone’, he kind of answers for you by grabbing your arms and mashing his whole fucking face against your face. 

Your first reaction should have been to push him away. But what can you say? Kissing is nice. And it’s been a pathetically long time since you’ve last done it. Your teenage brain kicks on and for a second you reciprocate, looping a hand around the back of his head as you lean forward.  
Then your rational human brain turns on and tells your dumb teenage brain to shut the fuck up for a second so you can think about this…  
Then you push him away. 

He grins, annoyingly cocky, as usual. “I’ve been wanting to do that all summer.”

You make a noise half way between a tsk and a huff and wipe your arm across your lips, glaring. 

“What the fuck, Sollux?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is not particularly good. 
> 
> Nevertheless, it is completed. 
> 
> Stay tuned for next part ;><

Next Sunday morning, you’re tip-toeing past Sollux and Gamzee's door as you try to sneak down the stairs. You’ve been avoiding Sollux since the kiss. That was a gargantuan mistake. One you don’t intend on letting him repeat.

 

Making it down to the hallway, you glance to the right. Dave has his laptop open on the table in the kitchen, working on one of his shitty comics, most likely. In the rec room opposite, Terezi and Nepeta are playing Kirby on the N64, while Gamzee naps in the corner. In other words, a whole room full of boring. You go into the kitchen and kick Dave’s chair.

"You want to go work on the car?"

Dave looks across the room to where Gamzee is curled up in a pile of toy dragons and ratty blankets. If you were more observant, you might’ve noticed that he’s been staring at him for the last ten minutes, while only pretending to do something on his computer.

 

“What... now?” he asks.

“Sure. Why not?”

Suddenly, Terezi puts her arm over the back of the couch and turns towards you.

“Yeah, Dave. _Why not_?” she says, and there’s a challenge in her voice that you’ve never heard directed at Dave before.

"Um… no reason." he says, as his shoulder twitches in an almost imperceptible shrug. He is still half glancing at his computer screen, keeping up his cool kid persona impressively despite the fact that he clearly just folded like a deck of cards. 

After a few more seconds, he closes whatever he was pretending to do and picks up his computer. He shoots you a look that is almost aggressively casual. “You ready?” he asks with the vaguest hint of a hiss in his voice.

 

As you're leaving, Gamzee staggers to his feet and stumbles after you, apparently woken up by the noise. You’re not sure if he actually knows where he’s going, or if he just saw the rest of you leaving and decided to follow.

 

“Good job, genius.” Sollux leans forward to whisper at you after you’ve all gotten on the bus. His eyes flick across the aisle to where Gamzee is sitting behind Terezi and Dave. “Dave always waits until _he’s_ gone before we leave."

You follow his gaze. Gamzee is leaning on the window in the double seat behind Terezi and pulling on her hair absently while she pretends to ignore him.

“Why?” Sure, he might be a little annoying, but not enough to launch a whole campaign against him.

“Oh my god. You’re such an idiot.” Sollux groans, falling back in his seat.

You fold your arms and grumble incoherently. You’re just glad he’s not bringing up what happened last time. Not yet, at least. Either way, you take no chances, and make sure you get paired up with Dave for flashlight duty.

 

Once you start working, everything falls into a familiar rhythm. It’s easy enough to act normally with Sollux. What’s harder is trying to ignore the obvious tension that seems to run through the rest of the group. What the hell got their goat anyway? “Why don’t they just write the instructions on the part?” you grumble, trying to juggle the replacement piece, your phone, the wrench, and the flashlight with only two hands. Dave just hums passively in agreement. He hasn’t said two words all day. You sigh. “Ugh. Dammit. Wrong size again.” you say when you’re done trying to jam it into the part regardless.

 

“Where the hell is Terezi anyway?” you ask, testily. She went to get a socket wrench, like, twenty minutes ago. You have no idea where Gamzee fucked off to. “Whatever. We need a different tool. Again.” No one moves. You roll your eyes. “Yeah. Great. I guess I’ll go get it then.” You grumble to yourself, dropping the flashlight and your phone on one of the sweltering plastic desck chairs.

 

Going through the house, you open the door to the garage.. And immediately close it again.

No. Way.

Like, there literally no way your best friend in the fucking world and the girl you’ve like since forever could be screwing without _either one of them saying something to you!!_ What the actual fuck.

 

“Dude, what’s taking you so long?” Dave asks behind you, making you jump. You spin around, looking as guilty as if you’re the one who’s been caught fucking in the garage. Oh god. Did he know? He makes a move for the door, looking more tired than you remember. “Come on. Let’s get the whatever and finish this. I want to get out of here.”

You jump in front of his way. "You don’t want to go in there.”

“Why not?”

There's a clatter of something falling from inside, and Dave shakes his head. “See, _that’s_ why I didn’t want to bring him.” He says, bitterly, and starts walking back towards the car.

 

“You _knew_?” you ask, disbelieving and, frankly, a little hurt. “Since when?”

“Since, like, the start of summer.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s not my business.”

 

“And you’re okay with it?” you ask.

Reading Dave’s expressions is kind of like reading the bottom line of an eye chart. Still, you think you can see the slightest tightening of his jaw that suggests what he is about to say is a lie.

“It’s her life. She can do whatever she wants.”

Yeah. Bullshit.

You wait a second longer to see if he’ll actually open up about it, but when he doesn’t, you roll your eyes and storm away.  

 

“I thought you were going to find the socket wrench?” Sollux says as soon as he sees you coming back empty handed towards the car.

“Yeah. I think I left it behind the house.” You say, grabbing his shirt and dragging him along behind you. “Help me find it.”

 

It might be the summer heat driving you crazy, but you’re in the mood to make some mistakes right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that took a lot longer than I meant it to...
> 
> Sorry. 
> 
> Anyway, things are now -finally- set up where I need them going into the 'official' second part. Sorry for the delays! xP


End file.
